One Man Left’s classic Tilt To Live ($2.99) series is a favorite of mine, partly because of how it subverted expectations when it came out in 2010. It looked like a shooter, with the main gimmick being that you tilted your device instead of using on-screen controls. Of course, that wasn’t the only “gimmick”, as it turned out the game wasn’t even a shooter at all. Your job was to avoid enemies, rather than hunting them down. That doesn’t mean you were totally defenseless, though, as there were many power-ups that allowed you to turn the tables on the evil red dots. Gerald Kelley’s new game Abzorb (Free) lands even closer to the pacifist side of the spectrum, as you don’t even get power-ups to defend yourself. All you can do to avoid death is run away. Is it anywhere near as fun and frantic as Tilt To Live, though?
Well, luckily Abzorb has its own little twist on the formula. Yes, you’re still tilting to live, but your goal isn’t simply to last as long as possible without touching bad dots. Your goal is to absorb the good dots floating around the screen, and once you’ve cleared all of them you can move on to the next level.
Yeah, that’s another difference: it’s level-based rather than endless. That matters, too, because it allows each level to act as a sort of puzzle with very specific challenges. For example, some levels might have barriers that only certain types of dots can pass through, or special structures that stick to your “ship”, or dots that only move when you tilt while you’re confined to a small area. I know I’ve compared Abzorb to Tilt several times already in this review, but in my opinion this level-structure is really what sets the two apart.
All of these differences are unique and clever and interesting, but one difference I don’t like as much is the way the tilting feels. Tilt To Live was one of those games that just about everyone held up as a prime example of accelerometer-based controls working perfectly, and I can’t even count the number of times I read things like “[insert new game] has tilt controls only? Ugh, I hate tilt controls. Except Tilt To Live, of course” on the TA forums. That game set a high benchmark with controls that were fast, fluid, and precise. Shockingly so for the time. Abzorb, on the other hand, feels a little slow and stiff. I can understand why the developers chose to go that route since this game often requires steady hands and very careful movement, but there were many times where I wished I could crank the sensitivity and fly across the screen.
Of course, the game got updated with new controls as soon as I wrote all that, so if you’d like to try those instead you’re welcome to it. You still can’t change the tilt sensitivity, but the new controls do allow you to touch the screen like a top-down shooter. In my brief experience trying them out they seem to work quite well–even better than tilting, potentially–but it does kind of ruin the magic. (Tilting is lots of fun, but why would I use that if I can get better results with touch controls?)
Controls aside, let’s explore the game’s central mechanics a bit further. We’ve already established that there are good dots (blue) and bad dots (orange), and your goal is to absorb the good ones and avoid the bad ones. To accomplish that, your ship has a ring around it that you must touch the blue dots with. Basically, get as close as you can to them to suck their energy out and shrink them down to useless grey husks. There’s a large timer constantly ticking down in the background, and if you don’t absorb all the blue from the screen fast enough you’ll fail the level. If you get too close to an orange dot and absorb its energy, that scary timer will count down even faster. It’s all very clever, and it’s especially enjoyable since I love game mechanics that reward you for getting close to stuff. (That sounds weird, but think about AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! ($3.99) and Breakneck (Free) as examples.)
With its tilt-based controls, single-screen environments, and arrow-and-dot based characters, you’d be forgiven for thinking Abzorb was trying to be the next Tilt To Live. Luckily, it has a surprising number of clever new mechanics that set it apart from its obvious inspiration, to the point where at some points it almost feels more like a puzzle game than anything else. As brilliant and refreshing as many aspects of the game are, though, I felt like there was always something keeping me from fully enjoying it. Maybe it was the slightly stiffer controls, or the somewhat plain visuals (though you can unlock new color schemes), or maybe I was just slightly disappointed that the game so often evokes Tilt To Live without quite living up to the same heights. Don’t let that deter you from giving it a try, though, as it’s definitely fun and easily worth a measly three bucks.
That gif needs to be attached to every F2P rant thread here. It's so fitting.
Also, good review...for an old man. ;)
I love this idea. ELI DO IT!
Anti- or pro-, I feel it should be judiciously used, great power and all that.
But does it work on water?!?! 🙃
Sure does! $2.99 IAP will give you the unlock >.>
You Bojo!!!
Hehe- man- thank's to you
It does if you have *power*.
Might work better if they made em like skates, one on each foot. Then again, walking also works well.
100% of people think hoverboard is a stupid name
Can validate!!!
Vacuuming while on a hover board is some awesome stuff to watch lmao!
Hooverboard?
Check out the electric monowheels. These are good for commuting too as they have larger wheels
How much did they pay you to advertise this?
Why? Are you looking to invest in the site?
We don't post sponsored content, so $0. I reviewed a hoverboard because I thought it would be fun. (And it was.)
but they let you keep the board, right?
Obviously.
As many McRibs as he could carry in his arms while hoverboarding through a McDonald's drive-thru.
My McDonalds has a very prominent "No Walk-Ups" sign on their drive through, I'm going to "Well, actually" the fuck out of them.
Free biwheeler, he mentioned it in the article.
He's a popular reviewer and that's not uncommon.
"I sent you a cup pf my blood! Did you get my blood?! Jimmy!!!" https://m.youtube.com/watch...
May the batteries not explode into flame under your feet, Eli
This is a cash-grab and nothing more.
They may not have paid you to write this review (as was said in the comments), but you surely get paid for everyone who uses the promo code to get $100/$200 off. I consider that a sponsored post.
I'm probably a minority here, but I'm really getting sick of this kind of thing... especially for sites that have a patreon.
I totally get that it's necessary to supplement income with this kind of thing due to the rise of adblockers, but if you must post these *please* mark them as sponsored (again, getting paid for each person that uses your promo code IS sponsored).
We aren't getting paid, I'll just remove the coupon code if it's making people angry. Honestly though, how many people who read TouchArcade do you think are going to buy a hoverboard with or without a discount? Our community won't spend 99¢ for a video game but we're going to move a ton of $800 hoverboards? Give me a break. I posted this because it's fun to write about stuff that's outside of the box of what we usually post about. It's depressing people think so little of our editorial integrity. :(
Edit: Coupon code removed, put away your pitchforks. If anyone has any other questions about our content and editorial policies, give this a read- https://toucharcade.com/tou...
Fair enough; thank you.
On the subject of journalistic integrity: It's unfortunate, but as an online journalist, you're lumped-in (at least at first glance) with the many out there who unabashedly post 'opinion' pieces that are nothing more than ads in disguise. It's them who are killing the name of journalist.
Didn't mean to offend you, personally. I really do enjoy your writing - just frustrated with the direction that many of my favourite sites are heading.
I promise the vast overwhelming majority of people doing the things you think are shady genuinely just like the products they're writing about. No one in this industry is doing it for the money, as the money just isn't there. I left a far more lucrative career to pursue something I'm actually passionate about, as is the case with most of my peers. I'm really not sure where this highly suspicious and adversarial attitude came from (Gamergate? I guess?) but no one writing for any kind of reputable site you'd ever want to read are taking bribes or getting paid off to write about stuff.
I've gotten weird emails offering, for sure, as have most people in my position, but the offers are always laughably low and from incredibly skeezy companies no one with a brain would ever want to hitch their wagon to. I can't think of anyone I know who would throw their reputation out the window to make $100. I'm sure there's people out there who would, but, they're not writing for a site anyone actually reads.
It's the same deal when developers go out of their way to publicly call out web sites that offer paid reviews of iOS games. I can absolutely promise you, without a shadow of a doubt, that those web sites' highest traffic days are the few days a year where everyone clicks a link in an angry Gamasutra post. The other 362 days? They're effectively 100% irrelevant.
I think you're in the minority your line of thinking that most opinion pieces are just ads in disguise. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, just saying I've rarely thought that while reading a review article.
It's usually easy to tell if a review is genuine or a glorified advertisement.
Also STAY OFF SAND if these are anything like a Segway.
I always thought these were wildly, but now that they are becoming more high quality, I gotta say I would love to try one out. I am a broke joke though so I dunno when I would be able to, but I have skated(board) my whole life so I don't think it would be hard. Looks like it could be fun!
Oh and Eli your hat is hilariously awesome in that vid; really pulls the ensemble including hover board together.
I honestly didn't even know that's a thing. I typically wear knit hats in the winter and just pull them up like that when my ears get hot. It's a functional thing, not a style thing, but maybe I'm just naturally that cool that it's just second nature?
People will always judge you,
Your personal honesty is the only thing that Mather.
Gamer Gate was a good thing for once we got reviewers who will not post shady reviews like I think you are.
Wow I love the name Hoverboard it's like a board that hover and it has a wheel cool!!